Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli said Thursday that he’s worried enthusiasm among conservative activists — his most ardent supporters — has dissipated just as he’s preparing for the final months of a high-stakes election.

“In some parts of Virginia, the Tea Party has been not quite staying home, but pretty close to it,” Cuccinelli said. “That’s a problem when principle-based voters won’t come out to volunteer.”

If Cuccinelli is having problems with enthusiasm, that tells you how bad the situation is.

Second, Reince Preibus announced yesterday at the RNC convention in Boston that use of the term “self-deportation” was racist, via Business Insider (emphasis added):

In condemning Rep. Steve King’s incendiary comments on immigration, RNC chairman Reince Priebus swept in his party’s presidential nominee, saying that talk of “self-deportation” was “horrific” and even “racist.”

Mitt Romney repeatedly used the term during the Republican primary campaign to talk about how his immigration enforcement policies would lead to unauthorized immigrants leaving the U.S. of their own accord, rather than needing to be deported.

“Using the word ‘self-deportation’ — it’s a horrific comment to make,” Priebus said, in a forceful rebuke. “I don’t think it has anything to do with our party. When someone makes those comments, obviously, it’s racist.”

The RNC press office has confirmed to me that the Business Insider quote was accurate.

Left-wing commentators like Steve Benen at Maddow Blog are all over it and shoving the RNC’s prior position on self-deportation down Preibus’s throat:

It’s certainly welcome news that the chair of the RNC considers “self-deportation” horrific and racist, but it also comes as quite a surprise. As recently as a year ago, Priebus helped oversee the completion of his party’s national platform, and guess what it said on immigration? “Republican delegates hammered out an immigration plank calling for tough border enforcement and opposing ‘any forms of amnesty’ for illegal immigrants, instead endorsing ‘humane procedures to encourage illegal aliens to return home voluntarily,’ a policy of self-deportation.”

That’s right, it takes a certain kind of marketing genius to declare your own party’s platform from just a year ago “racist”:

We will create humane procedures to encourage illegal aliens to return home voluntarily, while enforcing the law against those who overstay their visas.

All the usual suspects are having a field day:

This is absurdity cubed.

“Self-deportation” merely is the reality that as programs such as E-Verify and other enforcement tools for existing laws are made more effective, there will be less incentive for people in the country illegally to stay as jobs dry up — the same effect the poor job market in general has had on net illegal immigration. This leads to the logical conclusion that in order to solve the illegal immigration problem we don’t need an incomprehensible “comprehensive immigration reform” bill, we just need to enforce existing laws and perhaps make more rational the existing visa system.

There’s nothing pejorative or racist about the concept of or the term self-deportation. Another word for it is “law enforcement.”

In this headlong, mindless immigration political correctness rush, the RNC is just playing into the word games of Colorlines and other groups which seek to shape immigration policy by calling perfectly race-neutral terms like “illegal immigrant” racist.

The RNC now has adopted the linguistic race-card politics of the left.

Thanks for nothing. And don’t be surprised when conservatives and Tea Party activists self-deport themselves out actively supporting the Republican Party.

First, Biz Insider corrected their post; Priebus apparently didn’t call it “racist” he just said it “hurts us”.

Instead of banging your head against the wall, how about doing something effective? It’s fairly easy to make a habit of contacting @Reince to let him know what you think. You let him know what you think, then a couple days later you remember about it and let him know again. Make a habit of that. And, look up others like him and let them know what you think.

I have some Q’s I’d like @Reince to answer, and if enough people helped out he might feel forced to answer them.

“Self-deportation” really means “I think I’ll be better off if I return to the country of which I’m a legal citizen.” In practice, that’s mostly Mexican nationals deciding their interests are better served by living in Mexico.

When people say that’s an offensive idea, aren’t they insulting Mexico? As in, “nobody would actually choose to live there if he could instead live in a country created by Anglos and still majority-white.” So who’s the racist now?

Then again, the Mexican government has a habit of insulting Mexico by demanding that the great gringo-land welcome all the Mexicans who desperately want to get out of Mexico. Of course, the Mexican government has ulterior motives, which are called “remittances” and “Aztlan.” But it’s still fascinating to see them openly shaming the country they rule.

And it’s constantly baffling that so many Americans believe we have a moral obligation to bend our laws to meet the demands of people who entered our country with willful disregard for our laws. Are citizens forgiven for law-breaking if they make a big fuss and demand a “right” to break those laws?

I have long bristled when members of the Evil Party (Dems) call the GOP the Stupid Party. However, they may just have a point. Criminals SHOULD be inconvenienced! Heck, my mother was a legal immigrant, and she and her family had it tough.

But I hate that the national republican insanity is affecting the statewide races. Conservatives have actually been doing well on state and local levels the last few election cycles; it sounds like constantly having to fight our own national “leaders” is starting to take its toll.

As others have indicated, I stopped contributing to the RNC some time back. I occasionally feel guilty because right now it seems to be the only viable alternative to the Dims. But, stories like this assuage my guilt.

That’s what I’ve been doing the last few elections. The RNC is hopelessly mired in the muck that is D.C. That swamp really needs to be drained. I propose moving the Capitol to Mexico and let them deal with it.

I’ve always thought going third party was suicide. And still do. But I also agree with Angelo Codevilla that it’s not rational to expect tens of millions of voters to keep voting for a party that does not govern according to the principles and values it purports to hold. Codevilla basically said in February that the establishment has ruined the party – leaving Tea Party constitutional conservatives “orphans” without a party. And that can’t last.

Sorry Henry, that won’t happen. The Establishment will continue to attack their only hope, The Tea Party.
I voted for the lesser-of-two-evils with that pussy mitts and that’s all The Establishment has to offer…and here comes jeb

Business Insider isn’t a business news site as the name implies, you would be hard pressed to find a worse source for business news and there is NO “inside information” there, EVER.

It’s a leftist news site funded by Bezos, who just bought WaPo to keep it afloat.

A few months back, Wiesenthal objected to the proposition that the money “created” by the Fed’s “asset purchases” would have to be repaid at some point. He hasn’t a clue how any of it works, he is just there to spread leftist agit-prop.